SI’s Award Watch: “[Durant] blocked 1.2 shots per game in February, a pretty good indicator he’s learning to excel on both ends of the floor. And leading the Thunder to the best month since the franchise moved to OKC (9-2) is a pretty good indicator he’s learning how to compete for the MVP.”

Basketbawful: “The Thunder’s 119-90 loss to the Nuggets in Denver should be a pretty good indicator that — as good as this team has been this season — they’re probably a first round exit waiting to happen. No shame in that. They’re a young team on the rise. But the spanking still smarted a bit. Not only was this OKC’s worst loss of the season, it was their biggest defeat since a 30-point whupping by the Frail Blazers last April. Said Kevin Durant: “This is a wake-up game. You are going to have games like this. You have think about what we did, move on and make the adjustments we need to make for our next game. It’s just a bump in the road. A minor setback.” Uh huh.”

For those of you that saw a Saturday Morning Cartoon today, shh. Don’t tell anyone. It was an accident. Never speak of it again.

Art Garcia on the toughest division in basketball: “The Northwest is a true battle royale. It’s a sprint to the finish with four of the division’s five teams having eyes on the top spot. The Nuggets, Jazz and Thunder each began Wednesday with winning percentages better than 60 percent. (Only seven other teams in the league can boast that.) And the Blazers aren’t far behind.”

So do we get to chant “N-W-D! N-W-D!” when someone from the Northwest beats an Atlantic Division team? Is that how this works?

HoopsWorld giving Serge some love too: “Even though this is his rookie season, you’d swear Ibaka had been around forever. He has one of those names that makes him sound like he was a bench player for the Spurs earlier in the decade, but this promising big man (yet another bit of draft gold by OKC) is only getting better as he goes, and is definitely one of the best shot-blockers in the class. He averaged 13.5ppg this past week, including his second double-double of the season. He’s blocked two or more shots in four straight games (averaging only a shade over 20 minutes per game in that time) and is making local papers wonder if the Ibaka could be the missing big man the team has so desperately needed. He may be better suited as a niche role-player, but his numbers per 48 minutes are looking pretty sexy right now. You have to wonder what he could do with more playing time.”

Westbrook has the game to be a superstar, says this writer: “The only real question about Westbrook is: Will he develop into the star player his talent suggests he will be, or will he remain content to thrive in Durant’s shadow and his team’s success? Westbrook seems like he is the perfect teammate, so I’m sure he would be fine as long as his team continues to win, but he may be reaching a point in his career where his game can no longer be shielded in obscurity.”

Kurt Helin on offering KD a max deal: “Durant, even with a max contract, is going to make the Thunder money. He drives the television ratings that lets the franchise charge more for local deals. He drives season ticket sales and renewals. He is the one team sponsors want to be associated with. He sells jerseys. Save money by not offering the role players around him oversized deals. There are times and places to be smart with your money.”

Pro Ball Talk on OKC’s miserable loss: “The dreaded road SEGABABA (SEcond GAme of a BAck to BAck) for the Thunder, and once the Nuggets foun their rhythm, this was chalk. When Birdman Anderson is hitting jumpers? It’s not your night. The Nuggs can sure defend and score. After they’ve had their backsides handed to them by two Western Conference contenders and as long as they’re at home against a team on a SEGABABA (second game of a back-to-back). Fine win for the Nuggets, not a huge loss for the Thunder, they were due one of these. Just your regular schedule-based beatdown.”

Does OKC get past the 1st round? How much will lack of experience in the playoffs be for them?

John Hollinger (12:16 PM)

I don't think anybody is really excited to play them, I'll put it that way. I think experience is overrated in the postseason, but matchups are not, and Utah is only West elite team they've matched up well against so far.

Iblaka showed me his Zombie Sonics shirt at the DT watch party. I'm jealous! Looking forward to the next party Royce!

Anyone besides me think Taj Gibson should have won rookie of the month not Jerebko? More ast/reb/blk, less pts. Taking over for an injured Noah.

Anyone besides me think that Mark Cuban finally found the Center he spent the last 10 Years looking for? Haywood/Butler added to Nowitzki/Kidd/Marion/Terry = Western Conference Finals vs. Lakers.If the Thunder had Haywood in the middle I'd have a lot more confidence getting to the 2nd round of the tourney.

Couldn't agree more. I think the scouting report for our team is pretty simple too.

Offensive Gameplan: Push the ball in transition; guards usually out of position because they're forced to go for offensive rebounds. In halfcourt, move ball until switching puts a guard on a big; even if you miss, you should still get the rebound

Defensive Gameplan: When Westbrook is on the bench, rest your starters. Durant is going to score when he gets the ball, so foul him off the ball; the refs don't call it anyway

I'm confident we'll get there, and I bet we steal a game (maybe two) in the first round. We just don't have all the pieces to really make a run at a 7 game series imo

In the above, I never came back around to the introduction to form my conclusion. Sorry. It would have gone something like this:

The Suns have a model that works in the regular season. You don't see a pace that fast too often. There are no set plays that they run. The PnR and PnP with Nash and Amare is their bread and butter, but those two athletes are quite a bit different than other tandems around the league. But when they face the Spurs, who are built outside-in, and who have a bevy of smart vets that can adjust to your strengths in a game-by-game setting, you see the gameplans break down. You see the Spurs force their tempo, force the Suns hand, and adjust to what the Suns like to do. The Suns on the other hand, never forced the Spurs out of their gameplan. Guys have good nights and off nights, but overall, the Spurs did what they wanted to.

And that's how championships are won. You're solid in every area of the game, with an ability to be versatile in your game to game execution and gameplan.

We're built on the Spurs model. So I'm fully aware that in a few years, we'll be in that situation as well. It'll be really, really, really fun then.

Comparing averages for all games vs averages for games against teams currently ranked as western conference playoff teams the main slippage has been on offense. They go from scoring about 100 to just over 96. Team defense only slips 0.4 pts. So about ten times more slippage on offense.

It was ages ago, even before the last draft, when I brought up the subject of a team being built to win a series, as opposed to a team that is built to win a game. At first, that might sound strange, but there is a difference.

I used to use the Suns as the best example of a team who is built to win any game it plays, and the Spurs as the best example of a team built to win a series. Things have changes in recent years, and the Suns nearly made the finals not too long ago, but hang with me anyway.

When you are playing during the season, you don't really change what you do when you play every other night. You practice what you do well, and you try to execute that, making only minor adjustments for tempo and matchups. You'll see tiny strategies with timeouts and in-bounds plays. What you don't see is a team gameplanning for an opponent. Not on a big scale anyway. This is the difference between the season and a series.

When the Jazz see KD 2 or 3 times a year, separated by months and a dozen games, it's not easy to learn his tendencies and react in a timely fashion. However, when you have up to 7 games to learn him, and prepare for him, and plan around him, it's a different ballgame. You have the chance to see what works, and what doesn't. The next game, you're better prepared.

In the playoffs, your weaknesses will be exposed. There is no way to hide it. Teams at that level are too good to let you slip by with a weakness in your game that they can't exploit. They will find it, and they will exploit it, and it will stick out like a sore thumb after several games.

We know this team's faults, and they'll be exposed in the playoffs. They'll probably be exaggerated. Playoff games are sometimes blowouts, but they're usually really close, decided by a couple of possessions. You really only have room for a small handful of mistakes. Being swept just means you could lose 4 games by a total of 4 points. But I can guarantee that teams we hung with in the regular season will pound our weaknesses for all their worth.

The other teams have weaknesses too (except maybe the Lakers). So it all depends on how well we execute a new gameplan from night to night, and adjust to their adjustments. It's a big chess game. This will show us more about coach Brooks than anything we've seen so far. It will also show us if our guys can execute a gameplan that they aren't used to. Veterans can do it. Can youth? Well, not historically.

The good news is that after a playoff run, we'll have the clearest self-image to date, as our weaknesses will be easier than ever to spot. We'll also have that veteran tag next to our names, which is what we'll need for next year.

I'm rooting for the boys to take a first round series. I'd love to see them at their best, and I think we will. I hope it winds up in a second round series. But I'm not holding my breath.

@crickI hear you. But there is a time to sell on a stock, too, right? :)

All that aside, you are officially the glass half-full person I'd want to talk to after a tough loss as it's clear that you're definitely the "no, seriously, ANYTHING can happen with this team" guy on the DT.

I'd hesitate to say I'm a pessimist at all, just a cautious realist. After all, I remember exactly where this team was last year. So at this point, anything else from here is gravy.

The lack of defensive intensity during stretches since the All Star break is a little disconcerting. Our edge on defense is definitely blunted, and with our offense in its current state, it's going to be very hard to win playoff games unless our defense is back to playing like a top 3 defense.

Look folks, I don't know what's going to happen with the remainder of the season anymore than anyone else does. But the lads have given me more than ample reason to believe they've got the ability to go head-to-head with pretty much any team in the league.

Right now, a lot of fans/observers are saying things along the lines of "oh gosh, what a good season this been. But we're just not at the level of those really great teams. Ah well, let's do our best. Unfortunately, we'll get shredded in the playoffs. But it'll be a good lesson for our boys. Go in there guys, play hard, and try not to get totally blown out."

This is, apparently, the new conventional wisdom. Heck, it may be right. Many feel that being cautiously pessimistic is more level-headed, more realistic. But the pessimists haven't had much of a record predicting this team this year. If they were picking stocks for you, you would have lost some serious money this season.

I'm all for optimism, but let's be realistic and face facts, that the normal outcome, not the outliers or one game hiccups, is that the Thunder has struggled to beat the Western Conference playoff teams not named the Jazz, thus the only reasonable argument that could be made for the Thunder to be expected to advance out of a first round matchup would be against the Jazz. That's why they have seeds after 82 games, that's why there is a favorite and an underdog.

Obviously no one knows what will happen, but it's just crazy not to acknowledge that the evidence so far suggests the Thunder would be and should be an underdog in almost any first round matchup they have. That's not a theory, let alone mine, it's just the way it is. And there's nothing wrong with that, especially for such a young team.

All of this, of course, is under the assumption that they will cap this great season off in style and make the playoffs, where yes, anything could happen (pretty sure there was an article about that on Monday). But the flip side of all of this playoff talk and not knowing what happens is that, shoot, none of us know if they'll even make the playoffs. It's a two-way street.

My one worrying thought: OKC hasn't played like a top defensive team since the all star break. Other than the two blowouts (against the second worst team in the league and Toronto sans Bosh), it's felt like we just weren't all locked in.

I'd love for Kev to weigh in on this, if it's just me or actually there. The last thing this team can afford is to get lazy or worn out right before the most important stretch of the season.

@AnonymousAs a whole, yeah, their record is bad. But, against certain teams we're better. The Jazz haven't beaten us yet this year. We go head to head with San Antonio very well. We go head to head with Dallas well.

I'm not saying we'll win a series. I'm saying give the guys a little credit. They have a good chance to win one, depending on the matchup.

I tend to agree that the thunder may be a one and done. Their best chance I think is to get matched up against Utah, since they've seemed to have their number this season. They also stand a decent shot against an ageing Spurs team.

The only current playoff teams that I would feel OK about playing in the first round are San Antonio, Portland, and Utah. And none of those would be easy series, by any means.

Phoenix, Dallas, and Denver would all be extremely difficult to beat in a 7-game series, in order from easiest to hardest. And I don't even want to think about falling to the 8-seed to play the Lakeshow. *shudder*

However, I could also see OKC performing better than expected in the playoffs because of their intense defensive mindset... This is where home-court advantage could be huge, in spite of the difficulty of getting the #4 seed in the west.